Sports

Laura Dally tops outstanding player award with Canada West championship

Laura Dally and the Saskatchewan Huskies won the Canada West Universities Athletic Association women's basketball championship with a 73-62 victory over the Regina Cougars Saturday night on home court. Dally, a 23-year-old Bright's Grove native, was named Canada West's outstanding player prior to the final four. (GetMyPhoto.ca/Handout)

The 23-year-old Bright's Grove native was named the Canada West Universities Athletic Association women's basketball outstanding player, then added a league championship banner with the Saskatchewan Huskies. The Saskatoon-based school, hosting the Canada West final four this weekend, defeated the Regina Cougars 73-62 in Saturday night's championship game.

“It was amazing, especially doing it at home,” Dally said over the phone from Saskatoon. “It was one of the team's goals all year and just to do it at home was amazing. After our first shot went in and the crowd was just electric, it was crazy.”

The Huskies pulled away by outscoring the Cougars by 16 points during the third quarter.

“They have a lot of good guards that can shoot the ball, so just keeping them in front of us and then we just really focused on ourselves and defensively getting stops when we could and just having fun while we were out there as well,” she said.

Dally, a fifth-year guard, put up 17 points on 7-for-14 from the floor and 1-for-4 from beyond the arc.

“I just tried to do all the small things and let my offensive side just come as the game went on, not to force anything,” said Dally, who also dished out three assists. “A lot of the fifth-years stepped up and everyone played very well.”

The victory avenged last year's heartbreaker as the Huskies lost the Canada West final to the UBC Thunderbirds.

“Very tough loss, close game, but I think that put a fire under everyone and we've worked really hard,” she said.

They actually ran into the Thunderbirds again at nationals – the two finalists both advance to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championship – and the Huskies fell again in the bronze-medal game.

This year CIS is in Fredericton, N.B. and the Huskies, 18-2 during the regular season and 2-0 in the playoffs, are ranked No. 2 behind only the McGill Martlets and will take on the seventh-seeded Ottawa Gee-Gees in the quarter-finals Thursday afternoon.

“Ottawa's a good team,” she pointed out.

As for Canada West, it's the fourth title for the program but the first for Dally, who was honoured to earn the outstanding player designation.

“It goes without saying but it's also a team award,” she said. “It could have went to any of our – especially our starters, if you take away one of us we just have so many weapons. So I can't say enough about my teammates and thanking them for making that happen.”

Saskatchewan's Lisa Thomaidis was also named Canada West coach of the year.

“She's one of my biggest role models,” said Dally, in her second year at the school.

The Northern graduate – she credited Vikings head coach John Thrasher for impacting her career – spent her first three years of university ball as a Western Mustang.

“We were always at the top there but we never made it to the OUA final four or nationals or anything like that,” Dally, who's primarily played at the two or the three throughout her university career, recalled of her time in London.

She wound up taking one year off to work while training at home, then joined the University of Saskatchewan starting in the fall of 2014 to study sociology.

Her family made the trip for the Canada West final and there will be a local cheering section at CIS, too, as parents Karen and Charlie along with 24-year-old brother Jared and 21-year-old sister Melissa – she's a former Laurier Golden Hawk – have decided to make the trek from Bright's Grove to Fredericton.

“I couldn't have made it out here without the support of my family and friends,” she said, adding her grandpa passed away on Monday. “My parents still made it out here and I know he's happy.”

Outside of representing the Huskies Dally, who was with national junior team for three years, won silver with Canada at the World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea last summer. There the Canadians lost in the final to the U.S.